ecclesiastical
adjective
Simple meaning
Related to one of the groups of Christians who have their own beliefs and forms of worship.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihkleezeeastihkuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪkliziˈæstɪkəl
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of or pertaining to the church.
Of or associated with a church (especially a Christian Church)
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of or pertaining to the church.
Used this way, ecclesiastical is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An endowed church office giving income to its holder.
A calendar of the Christian year indicating the dates of fasts and festivals.
The body of codified laws governing the affairs of a Christian church.
Any of a system of modes used in Gregorian chants up until 1600.
The district within the jurisdiction of an archbishop or a metropolitan or one of the territorial divisions of an ecclesiastical order.
Attire that is appropriate to wear in a church.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: of or pertaining to the church
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.